Storytelling in the world of the Sims

THOTB-9.10

This History of Twin Bayous: Break on Through to the Other Side

***CELEBRATING THE 200th EPISODE OF THOTB***

Dobbs made up an excuse that he and I were going to the theatre so I could show him some of the newer episodes of TBJ that I was working on. We would be binge watching on the big screen and it may take a day or two.

He said that he made the excuse to his son Jimmy, because he said that his wife, Wendy, was nowhere to be found.

Wendy was probably down in her secret room in the sub-basement of the mansion. I guess that I am the only person that knows about the “room”. Down there, she has a magic mirror that she consults. I know this because I have seen it once.

At sunset, she will wave her magic wand and open the gate for Danielle.

The “gate” is an intra-dimensional portal hidden inside what appears to be an out-of-order phone booth.

When it is activated the person inside the booth will travel to Twin Bayous. Lady Wendy has made point-to-point travel possible and that is something that was not possible when I arrived here thirteen years ago.

Danielle Ringwald-Clemens was being made to leave Moonshine Falls on account of her crime of perfidy and Lady Wendy ordered the woman to be at Lost Lake on the far edge of town at sundown.

As the sun was setting, Danielle was there, right on time. Dobbs and I knew this because we were there also, hiding on the other side of the lake.

As instructed, Danielle entered the phone booth…

…and in a flash, she was “zapped” to somewhere in Twin Bayous.

As soon as we saw that Danielle was gone, Dobbs and I ran to phone booth from our hiding place on the other side of the lake.

I entered the phone booth first…

…and I was zapped from MF to TB.

Dobbs followed me as soon as the phone booth was idle again.

We arrived in Twin Bayous and our destination was the parking lot of the city’s only motel.

When we arrived, there was no sign of Danielle, but I later learned that she arrived safety and immediately caught a cab to her sister, Desire’s house.

As we had no reservations, we had to take the only room available. It had a single Queen bed and when we both saw it, there was a moment of awkward silence as memories of another era rushed in like a soft summer breeze.

Knowing that we both needed a distraction, Dobbs turned on the television and found the station that played the soap-opera TBJ 24-by-seven. We sat together on the sofa.

Acknowledging the awkwardness of my being in a motel room with my ex-boyfriend, Dobbs broke the silence and announced that he that he was going to leave for Angel City tonight rather than in the morning.

This was the first that I had heard anything about his plan, but even though I could guess why he was going, I went ahead and asked him why.

Dobbs knew that he could not lie to me and he confessed that he was going there to look for Brianna Marlborough. That is exactly what I suspected he was planning on doing.

I told him: “Dobbs, you can’t go chasing after dreams and besides you belong with Wendy and Jimmy.”

Dobbs replied: “What if I told you that I was not happy with Wendy.”.

“Oh, here it comes… My wife doesn’t understand me.”

“Jamie, don’t insult me. I am not a kid on the prowl. I am 52 years old and risen from the dead.”

I laughed when he said that. I always forget that I am… what?… 87 years old. I apologized to him and told him that I didn’t mean to insult him. I just didn’t want to see him get hurt and besides I already know through plain old observation that he and Wendy were not what you could call a “couple” in the conventional sense. She was so wrapped up in work with the school that she paid very little attention him. Also, she doesn’t seem to care the least bit that Dobbs and I, his ex-girlfriend, spend so much time together.

I have been hiding it but I still have feelings for him. I looked into his eyes and I searched for any sign saying he still had feelings for me. What I saw in eyes were tears and I thought that I might start crying too.

Then I asked him a question that I had not thought of asking him before.

“Dobbs, when you went through that portal at The Source and you walked into this dimension, why did you not go to France to look for me?”

Dobbs stared intently at his hands before he answered: “Because I was afraid. I had a fear of rejection. I feared that if I did find you, that you would tell me to go to hell.”

“Before I met you, I was a rake with multiple girlfriends, one after another. Remember that I slept with your niece the first weekend I was in Twin Bayous. Yet then when I met you and we were playing house on a houseboat in China, I suddenly wanted to settle down.”

“But then I became afraid that things were bound change; that you would break up with me if you were alive. Plus, I did not know if you were alive, dead, or had ever existed in this dimension. I was afraid that there might have been ‘bad news’.”

I sensed that Dobbs was being sincere, but somethings didn’t add up. “So why would you go to Angel City now, if you did not go to France back then?”

Dobbs again looked like he was starting to cry, “Jamie, I don’t know what I am doing, I have been so gawd-dam foolish!”

And that is when he grabbed me and kissed me passionately.

I pulled away: “No, Dobbs. We… we can’t do this…”

Dobbs then dropped a 50-megaton bombshell: “I have made up my mind. I am going ask Wendy for a divorce.”

My face was flushed, I was in near shock: “No, Dobbs. Please don’t do this…”

Then he gave a little speech that tried to make things less complicated: “Jamie, do not blame yourself. There is more to this than us. It just has not been the same since I came back. It seems as far as she’s concerned I am still gone. She seems to be happy being alone and focusing on her school. Well, I am not happy. I really like it when you and I are together. If Wendy and I are divorced, then you and I won’t be cheating anyone.”

That night I found a deck chair on the beach and staring off into the horizon, I fell asleep to the sound of the crashing waves of the Gulf of Simexico.

As I fell asleep, I wondered: “Had Dobbs really been planning to go to Angel City, or was that all done just to get my attention?”

Uffda: Interjection signifying exhaustion, weariness, resignation, or overwhelm, especially used by those of Norwegian descent; see 'oofda'. (The Norwegian-American slang equivalent of the Yiddish term oy.) Black: Me